The Forbidden Desire
1020 Words
Ela tried to stay away from him after that night.
She really did.
But Niko Varela had become impossible to ignore.
He existed everywhere now—in the quiet moments between her thoughts, in the dangerous ache low in her chest whenever his name appeared on her phone, in the strange sense of safety she felt whenever he stood near her.
It terrified her.
Because safety had always come with consequences.
Three nights after the confrontation outside her apartment, the power went out across her building during a storm.
The children were already asleep when darkness swallowed the apartment completely.
Ela sighed tiredly and searched the kitchen drawers for candles.
Then someone knocked at the door.
Her entire body froze.
Adrian.
The thought came instantly.
Fear crawled violently up her spine as another knock echoed through the apartment.
Slow.
Controlled.
Ela grabbed the nearest kitchen knife before moving carefully toward the door.
“Ela.”
Niko’s voice.
Relief hit her so hard it nearly weakened her knees.
She opened the door quickly.
Niko stood in the hallway holding a flashlight and a paper bag from the café downstairs. Rain soaked through the shoulders of his black coat, droplets sliding down the sharp lines of his face.
“You scared me,” she breathed.
His gaze immediately dropped to the knife in her hand.
Something dark flickered across his expression.
“You thought it was him.”
It wasn’t a question.
Ela slowly lowered the knife. “The lights went out.”
“So I noticed.”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly before he handed her the paper bag.
“I brought food.”
She blinked. “You brought food during a blackout?”
“Apparently I make reckless decisions now.”
Despite herself, Ela laughed softly.
The sound settled somewhere deep inside him.
Dangerously deep.
Niko stepped inside while Ela lit candles around the apartment. Warm golden light flickered across the walls, softening the shadows beneath her eyes.
For a moment, everything felt strangely intimate.
Too intimate.
The children slept peacefully down the hall while thunder rolled outside.
“You shouldn’t keep helping me,” Ela whispered eventually.
Niko leaned against the kitchen counter watching her carefully. “You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“And if I don’t listen?”
Her pulse stumbled.
“That’s the problem,” she admitted quietly. “You never listen.”
A slow silence stretched between them.
Heavy.
Charged.
Niko stepped closer.
Close enough for her to smell rain and whiskey and something uniquely him.
“You know what your problem is?” he murmured.
Ela swallowed hard. “What?”
“You keep waiting for me to leave.”
Her breath caught painfully.
Because he was right.
Every time he looked at her gently, part of her waited for the cruelty that always followed kindness. Every time he touched her, she expected him to disappear afterward like everyone else had.
Niko reached up slowly, brushing damp hair away from her face.
The tenderness nearly destroyed her.
“You don’t understand,” she whispered shakily.
“Then explain it.”
“I don’t know how to need someone without it becoming dangerous.”
Something in his expression shifted.
Cracked.
“You think I do?”
The vulnerability in his voice stunned her.
Niko laughed quietly, bitterly, before stepping away. “You think I know how to care about someone and not ruin it?” He ran a hand through his dark hair. “Ela, I haven’t slept properly in years. I don’t know how to exist around people without pushing them away.”
The confession hung heavily between them.
Raw.
Real.
Ela stared at him in silence.
For the first time since meeting him, Niko looked less like a dangerous man and more like a broken one.
And somehow that made him even harder to resist.
Thunder shook the windows.
The lights briefly flickered before dying again.
Ela startled slightly.
Without thinking, Niko reached for her.
His hand settled against her waist instinctively, steadying her.
Everything stopped.
Neither of them moved.
The heat of his hand burned through the thin fabric of her sweater.
Ela’s breathing became uneven.
Niko looked down at her slowly, gray eyes darkening in the candlelight.
“You should tell me to let go,” he said quietly.
She should have.
Instead she whispered, “You first.”
Something dangerous snapped between them.
Niko kissed her like restraint was physically painful.
Slow at first.
Careful.
Like he was trying not to break something fragile.
Then Ela kissed him back.
And suddenly months of tension erupted all at once.
His hand tightened at her waist while hers tangled in the front of his shirt. Heat flooded through her chest, overwhelming and terrifying and addictive all at once.
Niko kissed her like a starving man.
Like he had spent years denying himself something he desperately needed.
Ela felt herself unravel beneath the intensity of it.
When he finally pulled back, both of them were breathing hard.
Foreheads pressed together.
Too close.
Far too close.
“This is a bad idea,” Ela whispered shakily.
Niko’s thumb brushed softly against her cheek.
“Probably.”
“You should go.”
But neither of them moved.
Instead, Niko looked at her with an expression so painfully vulnerable it nearly shattered her completely.
“I can’t,” he admitted quietly.
The honesty in those two words broke the last of her defenses.
Tears filled her eyes unexpectedly.
“I’m so tired, Niko.”
Something inside him twisted violently at the confession.
Not physical exhaustion.
Soul-deep exhaustion.
The kind he recognized too well.
Without a word, he pulled her gently against his chest.
Ela melted instantly.
For the first time in years, someone held her without demanding anything in return.
No manipulation.
No fear.
No control.
Just warmth.
Just safety.
Niko rested his cheek against the top of her head and closed his eyes.
And somewhere beneath all the darkness living inside him, he realized something terrifying.
He would burn the entire city down before letting anyone hurt her again.
- Writer
